The celebration of International Women's Day on March 8 is an occasion to appreciate and highlight the immense contribution that women make in social, economic and political fields. One this day, one should look beyond the simple celebration though. We have to assess the progress that has been achieved in securing equal rights and opportunities for women and girls of Moldova.
More than any day, the authorities should be more accountable for the commitments made in addressing the gender inequalities that hider the potential of women in all of the sectors of Moldovan society. Although, our Constitution states the equality principle and we have laws adopted to protect equal rights, very few of the equality principles are put in to practice. This is true both for the public and private sectors, where we find very few affirmative initiatives that are supportive of equal rights and prevent the discrimination of women. In 2016 we still find that the inequality between men and women is considerable. The employment rate of women is lower as compared to men, even though they are better educated, the access to political power is still small, and poverty rate is higher among women and elderly women. A truly democratic and prosperous society cannot afford the "luxury" of ignoring these kinds of inequalities.
In support of this idea, Center "Partnership for Development" with the FHI360 suport within "Moldova Partnership for Sustainable Civil Society" programme, developed the first ever Gender Equality Index for 2015. The Index aims to measure the level of gender equality. The Gender Equality Index will be used as an accountability tool for a new Gender Equality Strategy 2016-2020 and as an argument for a more robust commitment from the authorities to make equality between men and women a reality.
The Index is calculated on the basis of 31 impact indicators, grouped into six relevant sectors, such as: (1) Labor Market, (2) Politics (3) Education, (4) Access to resources, (5) Perceptions and Stereotypes and (6) Health. The Index measures equality from 0 (no equality) to 100 (perfect equality).
The Index has been calculated for 2009, when the National Program for Gender Equality 2010-2015 was adopted, and for 2014, the penultimate year to Program implementation to understand the progress achieved by the Program. It is important to note that the Index measures inequality both ways (for men and women). Most of the times, the concept of gender equality is confused with the commitment to exclusively promote women's rights, which is not so. The Index shows that, men are directly affected by gender inequality especially in the areas of Health and Education. The overall score of the Index shows that Moldova has a relative low level of gender equality.
Info chart attached summarizes the situation in 2015 and 2009.
Analysis report can be accessed here:
http://www.progen.md/files/7562_raport_indexul_egalitatii_gen_2015final.pdf